Saint John’s vs. Providence College Basketball prediction, preview
Saint John’s is cruising in the Big East, winning 10 in a row entering Saturday afternoon’s trip to Providence. The last loss for the Red Storm? Back at the start of January as a 13.5-point home favorite to Providence. The Johnnie’s won’t be looking past the Friars this time around.
When these teams met in early January, it wasn’t matchup problems that gave Saint John’s any problems in the game. It simply just couldn’t hit a shot, scoring only 71 points against one of the worst defenses in the country. If we go to the KenPom metrics, the Friars do rank pretty highly offensively, and hold a slight edge over the Red Storm. But the rest of the numbers are no contest in favor of SJU.
The Red Storm rank 18th on defense, according to KenPom, while Providence is 213th nationally. Saint John’s also holds significant edges on the offensive and defensive glass. SJU is the far more physical team with a good size advantage, and will be playing with a chip on its shoulder to avenge the earlier loss. If the Johnnie’s hound the Friars on defense like they did last Friday night against UConn, this one will turn into a blowout.
Simply put, Providence is not a good team. It is 4-10 in Big East play, and the home court magic the Friars used to have isn’t really there anymore — 9-4 in Providence with one win as a home underdog.
SJU let its guard down a bit following the big win over Dan Hurley and company, going to overtime against Xavier on Monday. That said, I feel like Rick Pitino coaching against his son is always a weird spot. With five days off to prep for a revenge game, I’m expecting a big bounce back from Saint John’s on Saturday afternoon in the Ocean State.
